


Christmas On The Closed Ward

by AutisticWriter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkwardness, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friendship, Multi, One Shot, St Mungo's Hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 01:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7339606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and his friends see something remarkable when they wander onto the Spell Damage Ward at St Mungo's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas On The Closed Ward

Somehow, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny got lost on their search for a cup of tea. Harry found it irritating, but Ron wasn’t surprised.

“This place is so bloody big, no wonder we got lost,” he muttered.

Ginny sighed. “Why don’t we ask one of the healers for directions?”

“Good idea,” Hermione said, shooting Ron a look that told Harry she wasn’t in the mood for him whinging. They had stopped walking outside a ward that bore the sign ‘Spell Damage’, and she turned to the doors. “Why don’t we ask in here?”

Harry shrugged. He felt too tired to argue, and so followed Hermione through the double doors without saying a word. Dropping into step beside Ron, Harry wandered down the corridor, and suddenly bumped into Hermione, who had stopped dead.

“What’re you doing, Hermione?”

“Look, its Professor Lockhart,” Hermione said in an oddly hushed voice.

“What?” Ron said.

“Look!” Hermione pointed her hand slightly to their right.

Indeed, when Harry looked where she was pointing, he saw their ex-teacher. Ron looked stunned.

“Bloody hell!”

Gilderoy Lockhart was sat on the edge of the bed, swinging his legs and smiling in the same vacant way as Harry had seen him do right after his memory had first been damaged. He was wearing a purple dressing gown, and his blond hair was sticking up all over the place.

But seeing Lockhart wasn’t much of a surprise, considering what ward they were currently in; in a way, he was such a danger to himself that it made sense that he would have ended up in hospital. No, what surprised Harry was that the man sat in the armchair beside him was probably the last person he would have ever expected to be there.

“Is that . . . Professor Snape?” Ron whispered into his ear.

Harry took another look. It was definitely Snape. There was no mistaking that distinctive hair and nose. But what was he doing here? He, like most people Harry knew, hated Lockhart. At least, Harry thought he did.

“I don’t believe it?” Ginny said under her breath. “What’s he doing here?”

But then, to their amazement, Lockhart leaned forwards in his seat and grasped Snape’s hand. Lockhart was still smiling, and, to Harry’s surprise, Snape smiled too. He couldn’t ever remember seeing Snape smile. It made Snape look totally different, like his face had softened, and there was a genuinely caring look in his eyes. Snape then reached out and carefully brushed Lockhart’s messy hair out of his eyes, and Lockhart giggled.

“Does that answer your question?” Ron said.

“Are they . . .?” Ginny said.

Harry took another look at Lockhart and Snape, and then nodded his head. “Yeah, I think they are.”

Hermione was smiling. “Don’t they look cute?”

Ron raised his eyebrows. “If you say so.”

Snape suddenly turned his head, and his eyes widened when he saw the four of them standing there.

“What are you all doing here?” He said, looking horrified. He dropped Lockhart’s hand like it was red hot.

“We’re lost,” Hermione said truthfully, but it didn’t look like Snape believed her.

Whilst Snape glared at them like he was trying to think of a comeback, Lockhart started to smile, turning to look at Harry and his friends.

“Severus, are these your friends?” He asked. Lockhart turned back to Snape, who was now covering his face with his hand. “Why’re you so red?”

“Shut up, Gilderoy?” He hissed.

But Lockhart ignored him, getting to his feet and shuffling towards Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He waved at them. Only Ginny waved back, awkwardly waggling her fingers in his direction.

“Hello, there,” he said pleasantly, sounding slightly like he was drunk. “You must be Sev’s friends.”

“Gilderoy!” Snape called irritably, but Lockhart seemed to have gone deaf.

Ron was frowning. “Don’t you remember us, Professor Lockhart?”

“I was a professor?” Lockhart said, puzzled.

Snape got up and put his hands on Lockhart’s shoulders. “Don’t confuse him, Weasley. Come on, Gilderoy.”

He scowled at Harry and his friends and led Lockhart back to his bed. Lockhart was still looking over at Harry and the others. Harry was just looking at how gentle Snape was being with Gilderoy; it was a far cry from sending him flying across the Great Hall during the duelling club in their second year.

“Was I really a professor, Sev?”

Snape sighed. “Yes, you were.”

Lockhart beamed in a bashful kind of way. “I bet I was dreadful.”

Snape looked at Harry, as though daring him to say something, only to voice Harry’s exact thought. “Sort of, yes.”

Ron chuckled under his breath. He stopped when Snape glared at him.

A healer came out from around one of the curtains at the far end of the ward. She smiled when she saw Harry and the others, and hurried over.

“Gilderoy, darling, do you have more visitors?” She said, speaking in a patronising tone that would have annoyed Harry within seconds if she was talking to him.

Lockhart nodded vigorously and said, “Yes, loads!”, as Snape shook his head and muttered, “No.”. Hermione shook her head too, but she was smiling.

“We’re just lost,” she said. “We’re trying to find the cafeteria, but we got lost on the way. We came in here to try and ask a healer for directions, but we got a bit sidetracked.”

“Well, I can tell you the way,” the healer said, looking a little disappointed. She ushered them a few steps away, and said, in a whisper, “Gilderoy never gets any visitors, the poor thing, apart from Severus, of course. So is it all right if I tell him you actually were visiting when he forgets later?”

Harry nodded, but he was totally confused. Ron looked just as puzzled. The healer raised her voice again, and began to tell them exactly how to get down to the cafeteria.

Muttering thank yous, Harry and his friends made for the doors, Harry for one wanting to get out of here before things got even weirder. As they were leaving, they heard Lockhart shout, “Nice seeing you!” They all waved politely.

Once they were out of earshot of the ward, they all started to talk about what they had just seen. Hermione was grinning in an oddly manic way, and Ron looked just as confused as Lockhart had done. Harry was just stunned.

“That was so weird,” he said.

“Tell me about it,” Ron muttered.

“Lockhart and Snape,” Ginny said. “Who’d’ve thought it?”

“I think it was quite sweet,” Hermione said, still smiling.

“Sweet? Hermione, this is the man who bullies us, and the man who tried to wipe mine and Harry’s memories.” Ron said, exasperated. Harry was inclined to agree with him.

“Regardless, don’t you think their relationship was kind of cute?”

“Not really, no!”

They were distracted from their bickering when they heard the doors to the spell damage ward slam again, meaning someone was coming out. Harry looked over his shoulder, and saw Neville and his grandmother coming down the corridor towards them.

“What’s Neville doing here?” Ron said.

They all started to talk about Neville and who he might have been visiting in that ward, and Harry for one was glad to stop talking about Lockhart and Snape. That was just so _weird_. He didn’t know how else to describe it, and he just wanted to forget about it. But he wasn’t sure if he was ever going to be able to get the image of grumpy, horrible Professor Snape being so _nice_ to someone out of his head.


End file.
